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		<title>User Manual for Ryijy Stitch Designer 1.4.0</title>
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        <h1>
            <a name="Introduction" />Introduction</h1>
        <p>
            Ryijy Stitch Designer is a simple application for converting an image to rya rug
            or cross stitch pattern. Program provides tool for creating your own color palettes
            using images. This way you can create color palettes from your favorite threads
            or crayons or whatever colorful objects.
        </p>
        <h1>
            <a name="Main_Window" />Main Window</h1>
        <p>
            Main window contains an image window, which shows modified version of the image.
            Menu bar in the top of the application provides access to <strong>File</strong>, <strong>Edit</strong>,
            <strong>Zoom</strong>, <strong>Tools</strong> and <strong>Help</strong> menus. <strong>
                File</strong> menu contains options for opening, saving and printing image as
            well as closing the application. Own RSD.PNG-format is best suitable for saving the image
            for further processing as it saves also used palette information.
            <strong>Edit</strong> menu allows coping and pasting to/from clipboard. This can be used to for example edit
            image in separate image editor.
            <strong>Zoom</strong> menu allows changing zoom level for
            the shown image. <strong>Tools</strong> menu contains custom color palette management
            tool. <strong>Help</strong> menu provides access to user manual, language selector
            and application homepage.
        </p>
        <p>
            The tool window on the right has three tool tabs for converting the image to rya
            rug or cross stitch pattern. The first tab <strong>Image</strong> resizes and crops
            image. The <strong>Colors</strong> tab has tools to reduce colors in the image and
            the third tab allows manual changes to individual colors.
        </p>
        <p>
            Changes in the earlier tabs (Image -&gt; Colors -&gt; Threads) reset selections
            in next tab pages. For example cropping the image resets all other settings. So
            it&#x27;s best to first decide, what part of the image and how large the work will
            be. Then progress to color management tools.
        </p>
        <p>
            Bottom right corner has buttons for opening new images, advancing to next tab page,
            opening printing dialog and closing the application.
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Image_tab" />Image tab</h2>
        <p>
            <img src="cropping.jpg" />
        </p>
        <p>
            To crop the image, use four edit boxes to enter percent values for how large portion
            of the image should be cropped away. Grey helper lines appear over the image when
            a value has been entered to edit box and next control is focused. When the crop
            area is ready press <strong>Crop</strong> to execute crop. Following crops will
            be done over the current cropped image. If you make a mistake, press <strong>Revert</strong>
            to go back to original image.
        </p>
        <p>
            To resize the image, pick one of the predefined image sizes or enter values to edit
            boxes and press <strong>Resize</strong>. To lock aspect ratio, check checkbox between
            edit boxes. To resize back to original size, just select the original size from
            the drop down list. Resizing is always done to cropped image in original resolution
            so that it&#x27;s easy to quickly try out different sizes without loss of image
            quality.
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Colors_tab" />Colors tab</h2>
        <p>
            <img src="colors-dmc.png" />
        </p>
        <p>
            Colors tab has two methods to automatically reduce colors in the image: color palette
            selection and algorithmic color selection. Quick color selector has some preset
            values that can be used as starting point for color management. So it&#x27;s good
            idea to first try with it.
        </p>
        <p>
            Color palette selector picks the color palette that will be used in the image. Control
            has some options for reduced RGB palettes, where number of colors per each main
            color (red, green,blue) is limited. Normally good values for color images are 8
            or 16 levels. Grey scale images should use 256 levels. DMC color option uses approximate
            values for DMC floss colors and is good for cross stitching. Custom color palettes
            are in the end of the list.
        </p>
        <p>
            Under Color palette selector there are two sliders for changing color saturation
            and contrast. Changes in sliders take effect immediately. With large images this
            may be quite slow, so consider using Page Up or Page Down -buttons to change value
            in larger steps.
        </p>
        <p>
            Color reduction slider sets target color count for algorithmic color reduction.
            The algorithmic processing slows down if image has lot of colors. Therefore color
            reduction is only available when color count does not exceed 4096 colors (16 colors/main
            color). The algorithm picks colors all around the image trying to cover as much
            of the used colors as possible. Large color areas are favored in color selection.
            Changes in slider position is trigger processing and update the image with new colors.
            If the image has thousands of colors, color reduction may take long time. Text
            box to the right of the slider provides an alternative method to input target value.
            New value in the text box is updated to image when control leaves the check box
            or Return-key is pressed. Pressing Escape-key reverts text box value back to previous
            value.
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Threads_tab" />Threads tab</h2>
        <p>
            <img src="combiningcolors.png" />
        </p>
        <p>
            Threads tab allows changing individual colors in the image. Colors list shows what
            colors are currently used in the image and how many occurences each color has. Color
            list ordering can be changed using combobox on the top. 
            If the color palette is very large, automatic color list update will be
            disabled. Showing the colors in the list may take several seconds and can be activated
            using *Update Thread Colors* button.
            
        </p>
        <p>
            To change colors, first select them by clicking the color in the list or in the
            image. Multiple colors can be selected in the list and second click removes selection.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Draw</strong> button starts drawing mode, where selected color can be directly
            drawn to the image using mouse. Second click on the button ends drawing mode and
            resumes color picking mode.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Add</strong> button adds new color to the image.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Combine</strong> button merges checked colors using weighted averaging.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Replace</strong> button opens color dialog, where color can be freely selected.
            Selected colors will be included in the custom colors section. DMC colors have custom
            dialog with listbox for available colors.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Undo</strong> button undoes last color change (palette change or drawing)
            without limit.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Revert</strong> button reverts all manual color changes in this tab page.
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Printing" />Printing</h2>
        <p>
            <img src="printing.png" />
        </p>
        <p>
            Print-button in the lower right corner opens printing dialog. Printing dialog presents
            options for printing the image on right. Left side shows image preview.
        </p>
        <p>
            Topmost printing option selects how symbols are printed over the image. Default
            setting does not print symbols. Options include printing only black and white symbols,
            printing symbols over light colors and printing small symbols over the color image.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Color Map</strong> setting selects if color map should be printed. Color map can be
            right or below the image. Separate <strong>Detailed Key</strong> checkbox allows printing 
            more detailed color key on a separate page.
        </p>
        <p>
            If <strong>Show grid</strong> option is checked, then grid will be printed over the image.
            Grid options include printing black, white and black/white dotted lines. Grid will
            have thicker lines every 10 squares. Additionally there’s option for printing just
            the thick lines.
        </p>
        <p>
        <strong>No Background</strong> option selects most used color from outermost vorder and uses empty 
        symbol for that color. This option is only available if symbols are printed.
        </p>
        <p><strong>Draw center marker</strong> option selects of image center marker should be printed.</p>
        <p><strong>Stitch count</strong> sets size of printed chart measured in stitches per inch.</p>
		<p><strong>Portrait/Landscape</strong> option selects page oriantation.</p>
		
		<p><strong>Margins</strong> option selects how large margins should be left to printed page.</p>
        
        <p>
            <strong>Zoom</strong> sets zoom level of preview pages.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Save</strong> button saves the image with color bar and/or grid to a file.
            To save the image for further processing, save it from main window using File-&gt;Save
            As -menu option.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Print</strong> button prints the image with color bar and/or grid.
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Using_custom_color_palettes" />Using custom color palettes</h2>
        <p>
            Custom color palettes can be managed in palette manager window, which is accessible
            from <strong>Tools</strong>/<strong>Palette Manager...</strong>.
        </p>
        <p>
            <img src="palettemanager.png" />
        </p>
        <p>
            Palette Manager window lists all custom color palettes from program&#x27;s data
            folder. Actions in this window are instant and not undoable.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>New...</strong> button creates new empty color palette and opens a dialog
            for selecting colors to the palette.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Edit...</strong> button opens palette editing dilalog for modifying selected
            color palette.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Rename</strong> button starts renaming selected color palette. ESC-button
            cancels the editing. Changing palette name also changes the name of the palette
            file in the disk and therefore new name must be a valid filename.
        </p>
        <p>
            <strong>Import</strong> button loads color palette from file and stores it to program&#x27;s
            data folder. This feature can be used to import version 1.2.5 palette files. 1.3.x
            version stored custom color palettes to data folder that is under users profile
            folder. (Except for standalone version, which still uses program&#x27;s own folder.)
        </p>
        <p>
            <img src="paletteeditor.png" />
        </p>
        <p>
            Colro palette editing window contains available colors on the left and edited target
            palette on the right. Arrow-buttons in the middle add or remove colors to/from edited
            palette. Available colors are split to two tab pages. <strong>OK</strong> button
            in the bottom accepts and saves the edited palette. <strong>Cancel</strong> button
            discards edited palette.
        </p>
        <p>
            Name of the edited palette is in the text box on the right side of the window and
            allows renaming the palette. New name must be valid filename because palette name
            is used to construct filename for the custom palette. Color names and description
            on the edited palette color list can be edited. To ente redit mode, first select
            row by cliking with mouse and then click again in cell containg color name or description
            to be edited. Button in the end of the row opens color selection dilog for changing
            the color value. To remove colors from edited palette, select hem first and then
            click arrow pointing left.
        </p>
        <p>
            First tab page in available colors allows picking colors from existing color palettes.
            Select source color palette from drop down list and then select new colors from
            the color list. To add selected colors to edited palette, click arror pointing right.
        </p>
        <p>
            Other tab page allows creating new palettes from images. First load an image containing
            for example your own threads or paints using <strong>Browse</strong> button. After
            image is loaded, new colors can be added simply by clicking with mouse in the image.
            Size if the image can be changed using <strong>Zoom</strong> selector. Viewed image
            can be moved around using scrollbars in the edges.
        </p>
        <p>
            <img src="paletteeditor.png" />
        </p>
        <h2>
            <a name="Editing_custom_color_palette_files_manually" />Editing custom color palette
            files manually</h2>
        <p>
            During startup the program checks for additional custom palette files in the programs
            data folder. Installed version of the program use data folder in users profile folder
            (in Windows Vista or 7 <tt>C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\RyijyApp\RyijyStitchDesigner\.</tt>)
            and standalone version uses startup folder. All files ending with &quot;<tt>_</tt>palette.txt&quot;
            are checked for valid palette definitions. If palette is loaded succesfully, it
            will be added to color palette list.
        </p>
        <p>
            Palette file contains one color definition on each line. Each color definition consists
            of five tab-separated fields: <i>Short name</i>, <i>Long name</i>, <i>Red</i>, <i>Green</i>,
            <i>Blue</i>. <i>Short name</i> is short color code. <i>Long name</i> is natural
            language name for the color. <i>Red</i>, <i>Green</i> and <i>Blue</i> are values
            of each color component in range 0-255. Lines starting with #-character are comment
            lines.
        </p>
        <p>
            Example of beginning of a custon palette file:
        </p>
        <pre class="prettyprint">#Name	Description     	Red	Green	Blue
898	Coffee Brown Vy Dk	73	42	19</pre>
        <h1>
            <a name="Usage_example" />Usage example</h1>
        <p>
            This example goes through typical planning case.
        </p>
        <h3>
            <a name="Image_Tab" />Image Tab</h3>
        <p>
            1. Open an image using <strong>Open</strong> button.
        </p>
        <p>
            2. Select subject from the image using crop controls and press <strong>Crop</strong>
        </p>
        <p>
            3. Select new size for the image. This is used to lower resolution suitable to cross
            stitch or rya rug.
        </p>
        <h3>
            <a name="Colors_Tab" />Colors Tab</h3>
        <p>
            4. Select <i>DMC Colors</i> from Quick color selection.
        </p>
        <p>
            5. Keep reducing colors using color palette control or using color reduction slider.
            Color reduction tries to pick selected number of colors as well as possible from
            the image.
        </p>
        <h3>
            <a name="Threads_Tab" />Threads Tab</h3>
        <p>
            6. Select similar colors by clicking the color list using mouse. Then push <strong>Combine</strong>
            to combine colors using weighted average.
        </p>
        <p>
            7. If some colors don&#x27;t fit to picture use <strong>Replace</strong> button
            to freely change them and use <strong>Undo</strong> to go back if new colors don&#x27;t
            fit.
        </p>
        <h3>
            <a name="Printing" />Printing</h3>
        <p>
            Finally click <strong>Print</strong> to open printing dialog, check grid and color
            map to get some visible aids. Hit <strong>Print</strong> button to continue with
            windows printer selection and printing options.
        </p>
        <p>Copyright Jari Hautio 2008-2011.</p>        
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